Americans lead lives of quiet desperation, giving up their freedom: PennLive letters

In this materialistic, hedonistic society, if a human being cannot produce income or revenue for the state, he or she is deemed of no value.

Alan Bloom, “In Closing of the American Minds” warns of the inherent dangers of eliminating the liberal arts education, where creativity and imagination flourish.

Like Willie Lowman, “In Death of a Salesman” most men live lives of quiet desperation, never knowing the freedom available to them, had they just thought outside the “box.” The worst prison is the prison of the mind — and for all intents and purposes the collective American mind is in lock-down status. George Orwell’s “1984” has both come and gone with no one knowing the difference.

The freedom we have left is for things and pleasure?

I guess somewhere in the American psyche, that makes some kind of sense.